After four years of waiting and wondering whether SUNYIT actually would get the multimillion dollar nanotechnology complex promised by state officials in 2009, ground is being broken at the site.

Not by politicians with spotless shovels, but by real workers with heavy machinery.

The $125 million Computer Chip Commercialization Center, known as the Quad C, is expected to be completed by the end of 2014, said Alain Kaloyeros, senior vice president and CEO of Albany’s College of Nanoscale Science and Technology, which is partnering with SUNYIT in the venture.

The annual operating budget is expected to exceed $500 million, he said.

“Residents will see new opportunities to build high-tech careers in their own backyard,” he said. “Business owners will find new clients and customers. And the quality of life — including the arts, recreation, entertainment and shopping districts — will reflect a new vibrancy that will benefit the entire community.”

Officials close to the project have hedged about how many jobs there will be, but in a previous announcement, when the project was expected to be smaller, there were set to be about 900 jobs.

Quad C is being funded through a public-private sector partnership and is linked to Albany’s College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering. The chips that will be researched and developed at SUNYIT will be used in everything from phones to medical devices.

“It’s the foundation for a lot of good things that are going to happen,” said Steve DiMeo, president of Mohawk Valley EDGE economic development agency. “It’s going to change the dynamics of the regional economy.”

Becoming a reality

In a region that has been burned before by promises from the state and other economic development boondoggles, many were skeptical of the 2009 announcement.

And for a period, their fears appeared to be warranted: When it was first announced, the project was expected to cost $45 million, bring 450 jobs and be complete early in 2013. Despite a ground-breaking ceremony in the fall of 2010, however, no construction started.

Then, in 2011, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced another $45 million for the project and upped the number of expected jobs to 900.

Still, nothing materialized.

Finally, in early May of this year, SUNY officials said the project had grown in size and scope and would now cost $125 million. And as June progressed, trailers began to arrive at the site and preliminary construction begun.

Kaloyeros said he understands the area’s skepticism, and that people in the Albany area also had doubted nanotechnology initiatives there would materialize and grow.

“The reality is that now many of those skeptics are CNSE employees, partners and supporters,” he said. “We expect the same thing to happen in Utica-Rome with the Quad C initiative.”

Page 2 of 3 - Separately, EDGE is marketing a parcel of land near SUNYIT to nanochip manufacturers, and DiMeo said the Quad C complex and the ready pool of well-trained workers that will come from SUNYIT could help lure such a plant.

“The Quad C site creates a nexus that’s really helpful,” he said.

The particulars

The rise in cost for Quad C has come because the scope of the project has grown: For example, the amount of clean room space has expanded five fold, from 10,000 square feet to 50,000 square feet, Kaloyeros said.

Those sterile clean rooms are where work on the chips will be performed. The environment must be dust free, so not even the tiniest particle harms the delicate work being done. That level of purification and the tools used to perform the work are extremely expensive, so even successful private companies have difficulty affording research space on their own.

Though the center is based at a state university, Quad C always was planned to have private-sector partners working on site.

The new size is larger in part to accommodate a “significant expansion in the number of corporate partners, private investments and private jobs,” Kaloyeros said.

Kaloyeros would not divulge who the new partners are. He would say only that “exciting new announcements” are expected “in the near future.”

So far, two private companies, Valutek and nfrastructure, have signed on.

Once Quad C is up and running, it will become a training ground and center for innovation, officials said.

Impact

Robert Geer, who will become SUNYIT’s acting president Aug. 1 after departing President Bjong Wolf Yeigh leaves this summer, said the private company partnerships also will create an array of possibilities for students.

There will be internships and job opportunities. In the larger technology job market, the experiences available at Quad C will give them “a tremendous jump on the competition.”

“They desperately need a highly trained workforce,” Geer said of the companies. “It certainly provides a ready-made end user for the students.”

The annual operating budget for Quad C is expected to exceed $500 million, Kaloyeros said. In comparison, this year’s Oneida County budget is $371 million with its 1510 employees.

A large portion of that money will be spent locally on salaries, supplies, utilities, equipment and equipment upgrades. The average salary for the workers will be around $80,000 or $90,000, with salaries beginning at around $30,000 and rising far higher, officials said.

The facility’s employees, many of whom could be moving into the area from elsewhere, will be spending their money on everything from housing and construction to entertainment to clothing.

“It’s a huge positive, ongoing infusion of money into the entire county,” said Mohawk Valley Community College Economics Professor Arthur Friedburg.

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Coming Monday: Mohawk Valley Edge is putting together a new application to the Army Corps of Engineers for the site in Marcy being groomed for a computer chip manufacturer.